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CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island’s new commissioner of postsecondary education says she will still push for the governor’s original plan of offering free college tuition after it was scaled back by state Democrats.

The $2.8 million free tuition program for in-state students at the state’s community college was included in the state budget approved Aug. 9.

Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo’s original plan included free tuition for students in their last two years at the state’s four-year public colleges, but local politicians resisted with House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello calling it “unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible.”

Commissioner Brenda Dann-Messier tells The Providence Journal (https://bit.ly/2uI07Zm ) offering free tuition to juniors and seniors at the state’s four-year colleges will help students greatest at risk from dropping out.